We shall strive more particularly here below in the document to describe the set of problems and issues in the field of bank terminals faced by the inventors of the present patent application. The invention is of course not limited to this particular field of application but is of interest for any smart-card reading technique that has to cope with proximate or similar problems and issues.
The EMVco (Europay, MasterCard, Visa & Co) standard provides for the possibility of a smart-card or payment terminal having a plurality of communications modes. Thus, a payment terminal can include different communications means requiring physical contact with the card for example (via a track, or a micromodule) as well as different contactless communications means (compatible with standards related to NFC (near field communications) or RFID (radio frequency identification) that work separately.
Thus, depending on the card presented, such a reader should be capable of selecting the appropriate mode of communications (and therefore the corresponding communications means) to carry out a bank transaction.
Classically, when the presented card is inserted into a first reading slot of the terminal, this terminal implicitly selects first means of communications with contact (via a micromodule). When the presented card is inserted into a second reading slot of the terminal, comprising a magnetic head, this terminal implicitly selects second communications means with contact (magnetic reading head). Finally, when the card presented is proximate (by about a few centimeters) to an emitter of a terminal corresponding to a contactless communications module (and more specifically within the range of such an emitter) and when the card transmits a response to the terminal following the activation of the contactless communications means, this terminal selects a contactless communications means to communicate with the card presented.
Thus, to enable such a selection, the contactless communications means of the terminal are often activated permanently (or else they are activated at regular intervals as in certain techniques in which the contactless communications means are used in emitting short pulses to try and detect the presence of a card) to comply with the constraints of implicit selection of the mode of payment by the user (a regulatory constraint in France for example).
Now, when a user wishes to insert a combined card (i.e. a card comprising a communications module that is both contactless and with contact), into the first or second reading slot, it can happen that this user brings the combined card close to the emitter of the terminal during this phase for approaching one of the slots, and that the combined card will perform a transaction before being positioned in one of the slots. The payment terminal can then cause an error because it is generally not permitted to simultaneously process two card “readings”. Thus, when the combined card passes into proximity with the contactless emitter of the terminal, the energy provided by the electromagnetic field of the emitter of the terminal activates the contactless communications means of the combined card. Then, the combined card transmits a piece of information specifying that it can carry out an electronic transaction through the contactless communications means. It is from the instant of reception of such a piece of information by the terminal that the total time of a transaction is tracked by the terminal. Thus, one drawback of such a technique lies in the fact that, in addition to the total time of the transaction itself, there is also a period of time resulting from the activation and the emitting, by the combined card, of a piece of information specifying that it is capable of carrying out an electronic transaction via the contactless communications means.
Contactless card reader must operate at distances of several centimeters, whatever the type of user card. To ensure that the different readers are simultaneously operational, it is therefore necessary to move them away from each other by more than five to ten centimeters, and this becomes impossible for compact items.
Another drawback related to the permanent activation of a contactless communications module of the terminal lies in the fact that the terminal needs a substantial energy supply (owing to the increase in consumption induced by the permanent working of a contactless communications module of the terminal), leading to constraints in the sizing of the power supplies of such a terminal, as well as problems of heating and autonomy for portable terminals.